Northern White Cedar

Dewey’s Lumber stocks and mills Northern White Cedar. We only buy our Cedar Saw stock from Maine loggers that practice sustainable forestry.

Northern White cedar (03 White Cedar) is a tree with important uses in traditional Ojibwe culture. Honored with the name NookomisGiizhik (“Grandmother Cedar”), the tree is the subject of sacred legends and is considered a gift to humanity for its myriad uses. It is used in craft, construction, and medicine.

White cedar is one of the four plants of the Ojibwe medicine wheel, associated with the south. The foliage of Thuja occidentalisis is rich in Vitamin C and is believed to be the aneda which was used by Jacques Cartier and his party as a remedy against scurvy during the winter of 1535–1536. Due to the neurotoxic compound thujone, internal use can be harmful if used for prolonged periods or while pregnant.

Northern white cedar is commercially used for rustic fencing and posts, lumber, poles, shingles and in the construction of log cabins. White cedar is the preferred wood for the structural elements, such as ribs and planking, of birch bark canoes and the planking of wooden canoes.

White cedar 02 contains an essential oil within the plant that has been used for cleansers, disinfectants, hair preparations, insecticides, liniment, room sprays, and soft soaps. There are some reports that the Ojibwa made a soup from the inner bark of the soft twigs. Others have used the twigs to make teas to relieve constipation and headache.

White Cedar vs. Red Cedar